Wikipedia says "Kafka ordered in 1915 that there should be no illustration of Gregor"
and that Fernando Bermejo-Rubio says that absence of a visual narrator is essential for Kafka’s project.
"the reader should not be biased in any way before his reading process was getting under way" This makes sense until you find that he starts his starts his story with a fairly detailed description of Gregor, "armour like back....brown belly slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections...many legs" Although there is still some scope for individual imagination I hardly think that an illustration will diminish the story for the reader. However Kafka is concerned that the viewer should only have the information that Gregor has to piece together what has happened and what he looks like. (Cliffs Notes)
The first illustrator appears to be Ottomar Starke who, following Kafka's instructions, depicts a figure in a dressing gown holding his head in his hands outside the double doors of Gregor's room. I guess that the figure is supposed to be Gregor's father, it's a fairly simple design but it clearly conveys the distress of the figure caused by the sight of the transformation of his son. The viewer is curious as to what he has seen to make him so distressed and is invited to read the book to find out more.
Subsequent illustrators haven't felt restricted by Kafka's requests and have drawn the "vermin". On the whole they are less successful, the idea of a man becoming a large insect and living in a house is ridiculous but is described deadpan in the text. Illustrations of the insect often look silly or frivolous and detract from the text rather than adding to it. This version is reasonably subtle, its a nice loose drawing and the insect is depicted upside down to show the way that the Samsa family's world has been turned upside down by Gregor's transformation.
This illustration goes for an abstract approach, but subverts a traditional image of scrolls by making the background slightly distorted and adding splodges which just might be the vermin but might not.
This illustration just focuses on the chair in a cold blue tinged room (in the story Gregor used the chair to look out of the window). It's trying to be Gregor's unwelcoming environment which works, but because of that it doesn't draw the reader in in the same way as Starke's original drawing.
This illustrator has tried to suggest that the vermin may be in Gregor's mind. It's a clever illustration but maybe a bit too clever for a book cover which will only be viewed briefly by a potential buyer?
This illustrator takes a view through the keyhole of the room, emphasising Gregor's imprisonment. It's another clever idea but I feel that the depiction of the insect lets it down. This version is better and plays on the themes of imprisonment.
This play chooses to depict Gregor's transformation by having him move differently, hanging from the ceiling, climbing the walls. The actor remains a human but the snippets are powerful because they show his torment by the way that he behaves.
Some designers have given up and chosen an abstract image (also here) that has nothing to do with the story. They avoid giving the reader any clues about the story which means that they read it with an open mind, but why would they choose this particular book when there are so many available? There is nothing to attract the reader. Books are often recommended by friends or reviewers so how often does a reader approach a book with a completely open mind?
This is an interesting project where the artist Simon Benson drew beetles onto drawings that he had made in the past, linking the old and the new and making his own transformations.
The text asks where artists have placed their illustrations but the story starts after the transformation has taken place. Most illustrators have focused on the bug and I didn't find that many images that used the room or the door, but this downward view of the room is one that is quite successful. This graphic novel covers the whole story, I can only see the preview on Amazon but the illustrations are suitably dark and atmospheric and the depiction of Gregor is the best that I have seen. The title page is nicely graphic and reminds me of Saul Bass as does this version which shows how the bug manipulates the people around him.
This version shows how the bug imprisons Gregor
The success of the story must in part be due to the way that it can be interpreted. The text is vague enough to allow artists to choose how they see the story and what they take from it. Here are a series of photos, using the story to generate ideas, using photography, dance and fashion.
There are so many illustrations of the story, every time I log on I find a different one. On the whole I don't like the simple depiction of the bug. I think that the graphic novel and the play helped me to understand the story but the best illustration is Ottomar Starke's original. Illustrators mainly choose either the start of the story when the family discover Gregor's transformation or Grete playing the violin to the lodgers, I found a couple of illustrations showing Grete and her mother removing the furniture from Gregor's room and some showing his food or the state of the room as time goes on. Nobody depicts the charlady or his time out of his room.
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